The Plan! Chapter 1

Chapter 1

With only ten minutes until noon on this bright 20th July morning, ironically the anniversary of Apollo 11, Nathan Marcus knew he was was out of time.

He tried to block out the eight and a half billion lives his presentation would affect as he closed his hololap and made his way from the Senate Library to the Council Chamber with the last minute changes done and dusted.

The Chamber seemed immense and intimidating, without any of the one hundred council members or nine elders in their seats yet. He made his way to the media room where the technician, Scar, was ever present, ready to turn his simple hololap presentation into a fully immersive, interactive experience for him to use to full dramatic effect on the Chamber floor.

As Council members started to arrive, Nathan began to make his way to what he always thought of on TV as the Interrogation tables in front of the nine Seat of Elders.

The tables were in fact referred to as the Witness Area and were the only place a non-council member was allowed to address the council, or more often than not, just answer the Elders questions.

Not for the first time, Nathan wondered how he had gotten himself here.

After what seemed like an aeon, the Secretary-General made his traditional late and grandiose entrance into the Chamber. An immediate silence fell in the Senate Room as all stood in respect of the leader of this hallowed Chamber.

Albert St. Jude was a seasoned and conservative politician with over thirty years of experience in power and influence.

He knew that no matter what, four of the other eight Elders would vote the way he wanted them too after years of gathering dirt and allowing them favours to help them to hold their seats as long as they had.

The other four were liberals, which he despised, but also knew were necessary for a semblance of balance in the Council of Elders, for the meantime at the least.

That said, he was well aware that every vote had gone his way for years and he expected that the events of the day would lead to no different an outcome.

Albert grew up in a wealthy, influential family that dated back to the very first settlers. As such the views in their home had always been conservative and this bent naturally extended to the elite "old-boys" school that Albert had attended. As a result, he had very little tolerance for left wing liberal views.

With a casual bang of his gavel, Albert brought the session to order as all took their seats.

"Right", he said, "so they need help again!"

"How can it be that with all those natural resources, freely available, they just cannot seem to find economic stability and implement programs of rehabilitation? Why, once again, should we be called on for aid? I find even the suggestion that we are still beholden to them in any way an affront to my senses!"

Kumar Hassan, the most recently appointed and also the most junior of all the Elders, was eager to make a name for himself and quickly activated his panel light thereby giving him the first opportunity to make an opening statement of 15 minutes or less.

A novice mistake as often the later you speak the more material you have to use against your political opponents.

Having travelled extensively to the worst of the affected areas in the recent past, he considered himself somewhat of an expert.

After all, he had seen the poverty, pollution and lack of opportunity left by prior poor governance, to a generation of victims living in squalor and hopelessness, first hand.

Almost reluctantly, but secretly pleased, Secretary General St. Jude ceded the floor to his liberal colleague for the first of the nine opening statements.

Nathan sat patiently in his seat, well understanding that this process was unavoidable and that he had no choice but to allow this to pass while these pompous bastards got in their TV time.

He knew the outcome of any vote would be inevitable, four liberal Elders voting for aid and five conservative Elders against and as a great believer that time is a crucial factor in all endeavours, this just irritated him even more.

It made no difference anyway - even if there were an abstention and the vote had to go to the full council of 100 Senators, and 9 Elders, the type of aid asked for would not solve anything and doing nothing would be far worse for the entire population of the Earth and the Earth itself.

Nathan felt the weight heavily on his shoulders, but he knew he had to remain calm and resist the temptation to scream out "Stop the bullshit, already" and allowed the process to follow its natural course.

After all, many of these politicians would be crucial to the success of the plan getting adequate funding, and he wouldn't dare risk the ire of even one at this stage.

Finally, the light returned to Secretary General St. Jude who began a well-rehearsed oration on the uselessness of aid and the reasons any new scheme would, in his opinion, simply be a waste of time. In reality, re-assuring the rich that their tax levels were still safe, for now!

It was time to open the floor to any comments or alternatives to the aid plan that had been sitting before the Senate Elders for the mandatory maximum twenty-eight days now, before which a vote is required.

All eyes turned to the Witness Area.

Now was Nathan's big moment.

Although accompanied by his team of scientists and engineers, Nathan had never felt more alone, nor more nervous.

He decided the best thing to do was try and make a dramatic entrance of his own.

He took a deliberately slow sip of his water, slowly rose to his feet and, breaking with custom, turned to face the Senate itself.

Ladies and Gentlemen, we have a plan!